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Timeline...
PVCs LevelWellbeingLegend:

I was having a typically busy day at work. Throughout the afternoon, I began noticing the odd moment of a what seemed at the time like breathlessness. Once I was done for the day and in the kitchen making dinner, I realized that the source of these sensations was in my chest. Instinctively, I took my pulse and realized that my heart was skipping beats. I am generally an anxious person, and not unfamiliar with psychosomatic manifestations of my anxiety, so I tried to calm myself down by lying down and doing some deep breathing. This only seemed to make these skipped beats worse. Needless to say, I freaked out and called my husband. Because I work in a few hours from where I live and he couldn't be there to comfort me, we agreed that it would be best if I visited the emergency room. Just the thought of going to the hospital makes me anxious, so by the time that I hit triage I was a mess and I was convinced that my heart was going to stop beating any second. They took me right away and did an EKG and some blood work. When I finally saw the doctor, he told me that I had PVCs and not to worry. He referred me for a 24 hour Holter monitor and sent me home.

I visited the cardiologist on a Monday morning, on my way to work. From my first experience to this day, the PVCs had been sporadic. I was super stressed about going to the doctor. That combined with it being a stressful Monday at work meant that my PVCs were crazy. There were numerous 10-15 minute periods throughout that day when I was probably having 8-10 events a minute. This drove me into an absolute panic, so by the end of the day I was a mess. I left work early and downed a few beers (I know, I know) just so I could go to sleep. I booked the following two days off work because I was worried that I was going to have a nervous breakdown, or worse - that I would drop dead in front of one of my clients.